The Personal BillPay Diaries

SCES Gala Was Great!

Whether we're individuals or organizations, we're all part of the fabric that makes our communities special. Last night, we were proud to donate a year of our Executive BillPay^SM service to the Second Chance Employment Services Last Kiss of Summer 5 charity auction and gala. We hope it added several thousand dollars to the evening's fundraising total.

It was a beautiful event at the Four Seasons hotel in downtown DC, filled with Washington movers and shakers, and featuring keynote speaker Victor Rivers, a well-regarded actor, author and advocate.

We love the opportunity to support an organization like SCES. They are the only employment service in the country dedicated to serving "at-risk" women who are victims of abuse. The stories their founder, Ludy Green, tells will put you in tears. The work SCES does to rebuild these womens' lives, restore their confidence, and place them in the careers they were trained for is amazing. 

If you're looking for a charitable cause to support, please consider SCES.

Nearly Lost Hurricane Insurance!

This is a true story (identifying details have been changed to protect privacy):

Mrs. Smith has houses in Maryland, New York and Florida. She splits the year between the three. At some point between Maryland and New York, the hurricane insurance renewal for the Florida property came due. She never saw the bill - it either arrived when she wasn't in Florida, or got carried around and lost.

By the time she found out, the policy was about to lapse. It was late summer (hurricane season), and reinstated policies have a 90-day exclusionary window where claims can't be made. Mrs. Smith was terrified. After days on the phone with the insurance company and her bank, she got the policy renewed (not reinstated), but she was harried, exhausted, and upset at the near miss.

Had she been our client, it never would have happened. We know when bills are expected in, and if one doesn't arrive, we chase it down. It's paid on time, regardless of where the client is or whether we ever saw a hard copy. Our theory is "pay it now, sort out the backup later."

Don't forget to support FreyerMartin's run for the final 5 in the Forbes.com $100,000 Boost Your Business competition at http://boost08.perfectprize.com/voting/. Vote for (only) FreyerMartin. You may need to check your spam folder for the validation email - many people have found theirs there. Thanks for your help!

Carla Morelli, Panelist at SITC Outsource Your Life Program

Ever wonder what kind of options are available for making personal bills less of a chore? Wonder no more!

Attend Living an Outsourced Resourced Life, Success In the City's inaugural Diva Development event on 10/1/08. Carla Morelli, FreyerMartin's founder and President, and leader in the daily money management industry, joins HR powerhouse Kathy Albarado of Helios HR and Indra Brooks of On the Go 4 U to discuss how successful businesswomen can minimize stress and maximize performance through creative approaches to outsourcing personal and professional tasks.

Carla will talk about daily money management options, and how to choose the style of provider that's best for you. Ask all your questions, or speak privately after the event. Get more details here >

Don't forget to help FreyerMartin win $100,000! Vote (only) us into the Forbes.com Boost Your Business finals at http://boost08.perfectprize.com/voting/. Be sure to validate your vote. You may need to check your spam folder for the email - many people have found theirs there. Thanks for your support!

Credit Card Interest Rates

This week we dealt with a credit card company (who shall remain nameless for now...) that issued a great 7.99% fixed-rate Visa card to someone we work with. The cardholder used it for a balance transfer and was paying it down. Prior to using us, the cardholder had a few late payments - always before the next statement, but late all the same. With little time to pay attention to the account, the cardholder went over the limit once as well.

The card issuer jacked up the interest rate - without notice - to 34.99%. The cardholder was busy and didn't realize it for several months.

Being well-intended and able to pay, as our cardholder was, isn't enough. The card companies are looking for any chance to sock you with a predatory interest rate. They're also understandably worried that you're going to default.

They don't seem to get that their actions are either going to:

• guarantee that someone who isn't able to pay will end up defaulting and they won't see a dime of their money, or
• they're going to turn off someone who is able to pay but disgusted by their treatment, and they'll lose a customer at the earliest opportunity.

After a few months of timely payments, we were able to negotiate a lower interest rate with the promise of another review in six months, and a refund of a month's interest charges, but we can't do anything about credit dings that may have occurred.

So...though the credit card industry needs serious reform, you still need to be on your toes. Watch those due dates and don't max out a card just because it has an attractive interest rate. If something like this happens and you don't have another credit facility to move the balance to, you'll really be stuck.

Keep on top of your bills, and please vote (only) FreyerMartin into the final five of the Forbes.com business competition at http://boost08.perfectprize.com/voting/. We need your support!

Daily Money Management Primer Pt. 2: Ensuring Your Security

Once you've chosen a "style" of service (see Pt. 1), you'll want to ensure that your information is secure, and your private information remains so. This is where you will need to be diligent in your due diligence. Though most daily money managers are, in fact, ethical and honest (I'd give them my checkbook!), you can't alter the fact that you're dealing with people, complete with all the pros and cons it brings.

In every case, find out:

• Exactly what kind of insurance the provider carries: You want to see both general liability and professional liability (AKA errors and omissions). If you're particularly concerned about this, it's perfectly reasonable to ask what levels of coverage they carry.
• The provider's privacy policy: Ask what it is, how it's carried out, and how it's enforced. For example, privacy at our firm is such a serious issue for us that even my husband doesn't know who our clients are!
• How you have access to your information: If you've chosen a provider who comes to your location, make sure you know how where your physical and electronic files are stored, and confirm that you know how to access them. If you've chosen an off-site provider, ask how you get access to your accounting data and documents. Some, like us, put everything online for you, from documents and correspondence to activity reports and bank statements. Others put only a subset, and will upload other documents by request. That isn't a problem unless you're logged in a 2:00am and there's no one to ask for them. Others still will get copies to you on request by email, fax or mail. I personally want access to all of my information at any time, in a format I can readily use. For example, we put every document in an image file, and your accounting information is easily available in a QuickBooks file. 

If you've chosen a solo practitioner/on-site provider:

• Ask about contingency planning: Is there a backup person? What kind of screening went into that relationship, and how much information does that person have about you other than what is available at your location?
• Find out what leaves your location: Ask what kind of information is kept at the DMM's location. Bills? Usernames and passowords? Anything personally identifying? Where is it stored? Is it a home office, or commercial office space? Is the space shared with or accessible to anyone not engaged in providing your DMM service? How is the data secured? 

If you've chosen a firm/off-site provider:

• Understand their physical location. Is it a home office, commercial space, shared, private? Who could have access to the space that doesn't belong to the business?
• Know how are the files secured. Physical and computer files, during the day as well as after hours.
• Ask whether ANY work is done off-site. Are employees able to take work home or dial in? If so, what precautions are in place to ensure nothing is compromised when the employee is working in an environment that the provider doesn't control? It can be done, but some companies won't take the risk. In our company, for example, nothing client-related leaves the office. Employees who work with client data can't access it from outside.

These are a few of the things you should be aware of when selecting a DMM service. There are others, without question, but these make a great starting point.